HC Deb 13 June 1899 vol 72 cc1073-4
MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, on Friday last, in the Queen's Island, Belfast, a Roman Catholic workman was set on by a couple of hundred Protestant workmen and beaten severely; that the crowd dragged the Catholic to the water's edge, and, when he seized hold of a lamp with both hands to save himself from being thrown into the dock, he was kicked by several men on the abdomen and on the hands to make him relax his hold, and then thrown into the water, where he would have been drowned had he not been rescued by some men who were bathing; and, what steps the Government propose to take to put a stop to this state of things.

*MR. G. W. BALFOUR

The details in the first paragraph do not appear to be quite accurate. The man in question was a Protestant, although probably he was mistaken for a Roman Catholic, and his assailants were about twelve in number, who beat him with their fists, knocked him down, and kicked him, and finally threw him into the water. There has been, I regret to say, several other cases of gross and unprovoked assaults of a similar character in Belfast. In all of these cases the men assaulted are either ignorant of the names of their assailants or are unwilling to disclose them, but instructions have been given to the police to spare no pains in tracing the guilty parties and making them amenable.

MR. DILLON

Will the right hon. Gentleman station police inside these works, in order to prevent such abominable brutality, if the owners will not give assurances that it shall be stopped?

*MR. G. W. BALFOUR

I am afraid I cannot undertake to place policemen inside every factory in Belfast.

MR. DILLON

I am only speaking of the place where this man was thrown into the water.